New USB Drives Slim Down

New York — Several companies introduced new, diminutive USB flash drives, bulking up their capacities even as they shrink their form factors.

Kingston announced a new line of its DataTraveler drives. Called the Mini Fun, the drive measures 1.5 by 0.75 inches. It will be available in several colors in capacities up to 1GB. The Mini Fun drives will be preloaded with Big Fish Games’ Atlantis and Magic Vines gaming software.

Kingston’s drive ships this month in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities for a suggested $15, $19 and $33, respectively.

PNY Technologies announced new retail packs for its Attaché drives and SD memory cards. The two-and-three-unit multi-packs will be available for both devices in 512MB and 1GB capacities. A two-pack will be available for 512MB SD cards and 512MB flash drives, while 1GB SD and USB Flash drives will be available in three packs.

Finally, Sony announced a new iteration of its Micro Vault flash drive. The Tiny drive measures 0.5 inches by a little more than 1 inch.

It will be available immediately in capacities from 256MB to 2GB, with each capacity earning its own color. A 4GB drive is expected later this year. The drives ship with a clip-on carry case and will be preloaded with Virtual Expander software for compressing files for greater storage.